The Callahan Report: Jarrett Becoming a Short Track Master

7 September 1997

RICHMOND, VA: So much for statistics. Until two weeks ago, Dale
Jarrett had won eleven NASCAR racing events. All of those wins came
on superspeedways. Jarrett won at a short track (Bristol, TN) two
weeks ago for the first time. A betting man might have guessed it
would be a while before Jarrett saw his next short track win. That
betting man would be broke. Dale Jarrett won on another short track
tonight. He came home first in the Winston Cup Exide Select Batteries
400 at Richmond International Speedway.

Dale Jarrett

An exhausted Jarrett said, "Two short track wins in a row, that's
pretty awesome. We've come close. We just couldn't pull it off until
these last two."

Jarrett overcame a middle of the pack starting spot to win at
Richmond. He started from 23rd and moved to the top ten early. It
was a tough battle trying to gain spots for the next three hundred
laps. Jarrett took the lead with 39 laps remaining in the 400 lap
event.

The race was fast and nearly caution free. There were three yellow
flags for a total of sixteen laps. The long periods of green flag
racing played into the hands of Jarrett and the Robert Yates Racing
Team. "We knew earlier today that it would be pretty good on long
runs," said Jarrett. "It got to be a handful there at the end, but we
were just good enough to beat Jeff Burton. It was awesome."

Indeed it was "awesome", considering Jeff Burton was clearly the
fastest all night. That is, until the last round of pit stops. "We
have figured out how to go real fast, but we haven't figured out how
to win it," Burton commented. "We can go fast the whole race except
for the last run. We did it last night (referring to the BGN race) and
we did it tonight ... We're learning something, we're just not real
sure what."

Jeff Burton

It looked as though Burton was going to do his Rusty Wallace
impression. In the spring race, Wallace spun early and came back to
win. Burton dropped to 40th position after a spin early in tonight's
race. The driver of the Exide Batteries car flew through the field.
Before the lap counter hit three digits (lap 98), Burton took the lead
convincingly. He led a total of 234 laps. The bonus points for
leading the most laps helped Burton move into fourth in the Winston
Cup Championship race.

Jeff Gordon showed why he is the Winston Cup points leader. Gordon
drove his ill handling car to a third place finish. Gordon continues
to have good results with even with less than favorable conditions.
An upbeat Gordon said, "We just didn't have anything for those guys up
front. They really checked out."

Geoff Bodine had a good result by finishing fourth with his new team.
Bodine started from the 31st spot. After finishing dead last this
past weekend, Rusty Wallace brought the Penske South/Miller Lite Ford
across the line in fifth.

The biggest surprise of the night was the performance of Rookie driver
Kenny Irwin Jr. The 28 year old Indianapolis resident has thrilled
short track crowds in the Midwest for the past several years. He
showed the rest of the country why he has been signed to drive for
Robert Yates Racing next season. Irwin qualified on the outside pole.
He refused to fall back. Irwin battled and led the race in the early
going. Irwin gained respect with a strong eighth place finish.

Kenny Irwin

In the series points, Gordon lengthened his lead by 72 points over
Mark Martin. The Valvoline driver lost his power steering with over
100 laps remaining in the race. The drive for the rest of the race
physically drained Martin. At one point, Wally Dallenbach Jr. was
waiting in the Valvoline pit to relieve Martin. Martin finished but
dropped to 25th place before the checkered flag fell. Gordon has a 99
point lead on Martin. Third in the points is race winner, Jarrett,
143 behind Gordon. The points race is still a toss up with eight
races remaining.

In the end, it was a night belonging to Dale Jarrett. The dedicated
family man kept the tradition of winning at Richmond "in the family".
His father, Ned Jarrett, won at Richmond 34 years earlier.